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The annual Letter Carriers' Food Drive held last month produced record-breaking results!

The National Association of Letter Carriers announced today that the 24th annual Stamp Out Hunger® Food Drive, held on Saturday, May 14, collected more than 80 million pounds of food, well above the previous record of 77 million pounds.

And the food drive now has surpassed 1.5 billion pounds since it began in 1993.

“These results are gratifying, because they mean that even more people will be helped,” NALC President Fredric Rolando said. “As letter carriers, we are honored to be able to assist people in need. On a daily basis we see the struggles in the communities we serve, and we believe it's important to do all we can to help.

“None of this would be possible without the generosity of residents throughout the country,” Rolando added.

He also praised the organizations that help with the effort: U.S. Postal Service, National Rural Letter Carriers’ Association (NRLCA), United Way Worldwide, United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW), AFL-CIO, Valpak and Valassis.

Hunger affects about 50 million people around the country, including millions of children, senior citizens and veterans.

The nation's largest single-day food drive, the Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive is held each year on the second Saturday each May in 10,000 cities and towns in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and Guam.

It provides residents with an easy way to donate food to those in need in the community. Customers simply leave their donation of non-perishable goods next to their mailbox before the delivery of the mail that Saturday. Letter carriers collect the non-perishable food donations on that day as they deliver mail along their postal routes, and distribute them to local food banks, pantries and shelters.

For a spreadsheet containing information on collected food amounts by city or to compile state totals, click here.

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